The Longest Road (teaser)
by Veluren
Summary: Broken free by a last minute plea to your senses, you reset one last time to put everything in order, but something's wrong, the monsters are stronger and the puzzles are genuine, but this time it's not just your own ending you're fighting for. (Chapter 1 of a new story that won't be posted on fanfic, see the review at the end for more info)


"Heh, so much for the great king and his kid." I said triumphantly as I stood over the shriveled and maimed flower, "Not even enough to nick my knife."

I was done with this world and ready to move on the next, at least I thought I was, then he stepped in front of me.

"Hahah, look, it's the old book goat. The years haven't been kind to you, you're all crippled. Oh, I know, you came to me to be put down, well I'll be happy to oblige." I started approaching him when he opened his mouth, probably another threat about what a monster I am, or the kind of horrors I've committed, par the course and nothing new. I watched as he breathed in and-

"FRISK!"

Th-the hell?

"I know you're in there Frisk! Don't let this thing control you, remember the kind of person you are!"

Hah, pathetic, he's not even going to try to fight? Just scream at me over this kid's body? Sorry to say old man, but that kid's long gon-

?!

Why... why can't I move my body? What is he doing, is that... is he preforming a reset?!

"Remember Toriel! You were like her child, she loved you as much as she did Chara and Asriel!"

I don't care about her, dammit, let me stab him already!

"Remember Asgore! You and him were like father and son once you bonded."

You're not in control of me! Get out of this body, brat!

"Remember cooking with Papyrus, recoiling in horror as Toriel and Sans bounced puns off of you, remember Undyne's training sessions and how worn out they left you, how Alphys would always look on like she thought the training was about to kill you!"

I'm not this person, and I'm not nice! I'm going to get control back.

And I'm going to murder you

You reach out of the dark haze in your mind and grab Chara's arm!

"What?! This shouldn't be possible! I was in control!" He screamed as he tried to fight your grip.

"You invited me here! You let this get this far! Don't act like you're some saint just because you're stopping me!" You shook your head thoroughly, he wouldn't stop thrashing no matter how much you held him.

"I didn't do this." You said silently.

That one sentence caused him to stop struggling, "Oh? You didn't? Then tell me, who's responsible for all of this? Who's the one who cut down this entire society then?!" He started struggling again, hitting you in the side with the handle of his knife.

You didn't have the answer, "You showed me what it was like to come back, how much fun it was to kill, you're responsible for this!" You closed your eyes harder.

There was something else pulling at you, Chara stopped dead when he felt it, "What is..." He looked behind you and saw it.

Strings were coming off your body as you were desperately fighting against this fate, Chara seemed breathless, "What is this?!"

"Control." You said quietly. He didn't know how to respond.

"Tell me something, Frisk, was it? What kind of ending do you want?"

"I want an ending where everyone's alive and happy, the ending I had!" Your emotions exploded as you reflected on the moments that brought you back to this world.

"Did you not reset, wanting to see what it was like to destroy everything?" You shook your head vigorously, you never wanted that.

"Hey... you can let go of me." He said calmly. You knew it was against your better instinct, you knew what he was capable of, but something told you it would be alright, you did it anyway.

He gripped the knife in his hand looking at the strings attached to you, "So then, you're telling me this thing has been controlling you the whole time, every kill you've made, every reset you've done, this is the exact opposite of what you want?" He started laughing.

"How completely absurd!" He yelled as he slashed the air above you. His knife flung out some kind of energy, you weren't sure if it was actually him, or if it was because you were in your mental realm.

The strings broke away from you as he slashed at the unseen entity that had spent the past journey making you miserable and stealing your humanity from you.

You looked up to see Chara standing there, you were free to move on your own. "Tch... whatever." He said as he turned to face you, "It's no fun if it's not your doing, have your crappy happy ending." He said as he walked off, you felt his presence abandon your body entirely, just like that you were free, not just of him, but of the outside force that had its hands on you since you first woke up in the underground.

You realized you were truly free now.

You came back to reality realizing the kind of world you were left in. You looked up and saw the person who brought you back to reality standing in front of you, the world around him swirling in a reset. You didn't know what kind of monster he was, he was melting away and looked unrecognizable, the only distinct feature you could make out was that he was holding himself up on a single arm instead of two.

You closed your eyes, focusing hard on the start of your journey.

You would do it right this time, it wouldn't be ripped away from you, you were filled with determination.

You started tumbling back to the past, you'd felt this before, twice at this point. You'd had to reset after you killed a few monsters and Flowey suggested that you try to keep everyone alive at the end of your journey, you were ripped from your happy ending by the presence wanting to know what it would be like if you killed everyone. And now, you'd have to go through that journey again to get back to everyone.

Thinking of their smiling faces, those times you had together on the surface, you would make it.

You saw your destination, that yellow patch of flowers where you first landed in the underground, you closed your eyes as you readied for the shock of waking up.

...but nothing happened.

You opened your eyes in shock to see that your physical body was there, but your SOUL was still traveling back. You couldn't reset this far back, you thought, something else was going on here.

You had no idea what was going on, but you were going far beyond when you came to the underground, to years back.

"Asriel!" You heard three voices scream out. You came to attention immediately and willed yourself to stop travelling through the reset. You took note of this place, it was part of the Ruins you hadn't seen before. You looked around and saw three Boss Monsters, two of them recognizable as Toriel and Asgore, and one that you hadn't seen before. You looked beyond them and saw something awful.

Asriel was laying on the ground and turning to dust.

You didn't know what was happening, but you moved your spiritual presence over there, time seemed to slow down as you did.

You had no idea what you were thinking, no idea what was about to happen, you saw the smaller, white inverted heart of Asriel's soul break off from the red, normal shaped heart of Chara. And you grabbed it before it could disappear.

"Who... are you?" A voice spoke in your mind, you remembered this voice.

"...A friend." You responded, realizing the impact of what you had just done as you felt yourself being pulled away.

(Hey, hey, wake up!)

You woke up groggy and struggled to stand up, it felt like you had just had the worst night of your life. Standing up, you looked back and saw the golden bed of sunflowers that you landed in.

(Hello, can you hear me?)

You heard again, "Hello?" you responded.

(You can hear me, thank goodness, you were unconscious for such a long time!)

Your senses finally returned in full, you realized whose voice was speaking in your head, and you fell to your knees, fighting the urge to cry.

(Hey... are you alright?)

You lifted your head and smiled, still trying to fight back tears.

You didn't leave the first room, not right away. Instead, you chose to sit on the bed of flowers and tell Asriel what you'd done, that somehow, some way, you'd gone back into the past at the moment of his death and absorbed his SOUL so it didn't depart.

(Wow, so... it does work both ways.

Well, golly, I'm rather grateful but, what happens now?)

You paused at that, you closed your eyes and thought about the implications of this... and then it hit you, the shock may as well have made you turn to stone, when you finally broke it, you couldn't stop smiling. You took in a breath and told Asriel that you've got a long journey ahead of you.

(A journey? What's at the end of it?)

You just smiled, and told him that it was a surprise.

(Hey, not fair!)

You chuckled at that as you stood up, then looked up at the sky. It was a surprise for him, but you knew exactly what was waiting at the end of your adventure this time. It wasn't just an ending with a family, friends, and love, there was something else waiting at the end now, someone you can help this time that you couldn't the first.

An empty shell who could use a SOUL.

Gathering your determination, you stood up and headed into the next room, it was time for your adventure to begin anew.

You walked up to the grass and saw that familiar- and unwanted- face staring at you.

"Golly! That was a close one, I almost thought I was a goner!" He said smiling at you knowingly, then left without tricking you into that 'tutorial' nonsense.

(Was that a talking flower? Weird)

The irony was like a ten-ton weight.

You sat there for a moment, staring up and getting ready, and you told Asriel to stay calm at what he was about to see.

(Calm? Why?)

On cue, Toriel came into the room to find you for the first time, "Do not be afraid, my child, I am Toriel, caretaker of these ruins."

(Mom?!)

You felt a bit of a twinge as you had to fight Asriel's urge to control you and run up and hug her, that's right, he can share control of your body like this if he really wanted to, he told you that's how it worked with him and Chara when you met in the ruins, it was a weird sensation.

"Are you okay, child? You look pale." You didn't respond, just smiled, "Ah, very well then, please, follow me, and I shall instruct you in the operation of the ruins."

(That... she's okay.)

You heard him start to cry in your head, before you could ask how that worked you saw tears coming from your eyes even though you weren't crying yourself. This was going to take a lot of getting used to.

You gave him a minute to calm down and focused your determination to make a SAVE right before you entered the ruins.

Toriel went about teaching you as normal, with the odd change that, for some reason, the lever puzzle in the second room wasn't marked. It wasn't a big deal because it was still a simple puzzle, but you started to wonder.

(She seemed really confused that the paint was gone... hey, you seemed kind of confused too.)

You walked into the room with the spike trap that Toriel would guide you over when a froggit jumped out at you. You raised your arms to defend yourself, knowing that just speaking to them would hurt their will to fight... except this wasn't the froggits from the ruin, it was a final froggit, the kind you only saw in the Core.

Nonetheless, it was still terrified of Toriel and fled when she glared at it. Still, you couldn't help but think of what just happened.

(That's my mom alright.)

He sounded somewhere between proud and understanding of what just happened, you kind of agreed, that glare is a good way to get you to do a lot of things.

She gave you a phone and told you to wait for her, of course, you weren't going to listen.

(Hey, she said we should wait.)

You informed Asriel that a dog steals her phone and she winds up never coming back until you catch up to her of your own accord.

(That seems... kind of far-fetched.)

If it's the same dog you're thinking of, it's really not.

You made your way into the room with the rocks. On cue, Toriel called your phone, "Hello! I was wondering, do you prefer cinnamon, or butterscotch?"

(Oh oh oh, Cinnamon!)

"Butterscotch."

(Rude!)

You chuckled internally at that as Toriel called back to re-affirm that you at the very least don't have any issue with Cinnamon, then proceeded on your way.

Still, something was wrong, as you worked your way through the ruins you noticed the monsters were different, they were strong and their attacks were hard to avoid and when they hit you, they hit hard. You weren't expecting some of the attacks and were left hurting badly.

(Hey, are you okay uh... oh golly, what's your name?)

"Frisk." You answered as you put some gold in a web, getting two spider donuts, one for now, one for later. Way later.

(Frisk... that's a nice name. Hey, thank you for saving me, I don't know why or how you came back but... I'm happy to be able to see mom again.)

You closed your eyes, thinking back to the previous happy ending, Toriel would read you bedtime stories, tuck you in, she'd always wake you up for school, you'd always go to bed on Friday excited because you knew you'd wake up to a fresh pie. You just smiled, "You won't just be able to see her." You said reassuringly.

(I...huh?)

He sounded confused, you didn't bother clarifying, not yet.

You stepped around the tree trunk where Toriel meets you. She was stunned at how injured you were and seemed ready to go and destroy the monsters that hurt you. You hadn't seen that reaction before since you didn't get terribly hurt on the first time through.

She healed you, then walked you up to the house and you stopped for a minute before heading in.

"Asriel." You broke your silence.

(Yeah?)

You closed your eyes as you thought of what to say, you knew what was going to come soon, "This next part will... be hard to watch, but please, let me stay in control."

(I don't like the sound of that... but I trust you, Frisk.)

You focused your thoughts as you stared at Home, letting the knowledge that this will all be worth it in the end fill you with determination.

You were slightly deterred by the fact that the smell coming out of the house was most decidedly not butterscotch, cinnamon, or any combination of the two.


End file.
